> Option one would be to port libpng and zlib to C#,
> adding them to the System.Drawing assembly. This has
> the advantage of not requiring any external dependencies,
> and it should run anywhere. The downside is it increases
> the size and maintenance requirements of Mono.
>> Option two is to bind to an external shared library.
> This would keep the assembly smaller and easier to
> manage, but raises all kinds of issues re: missing
> or outdated libraries.
>> Although it is more work, I guess I am leaning toward
> the first solution. Any thoughts?
My 0.01$US would lean towards the second option. Lots of software
depends on these core sorts of libraries, and I don't see why Mono
should be any different. We benefit from better performance, the
maintenance is essentially "outsourced" to the maintainers of the
external package, and it should be a lot faster to simply use what
already exists and "wrap" it in C#.
I'm a newbie in this list, but I couldn't avoid opening my mouth 8-)
-elan